On the challenges behind Weidman’s win: “When I
started doing interviews the week before the fight, somebody
brought that up to me. They said he hasn’t fought for a year. He
had an injury, Hurricane Sandy. He was financially destitute. I
actually started getting worried. I [had never given] it any
thought. You’re kind of in the moment and you’re going to do what
you have to do, but when I finally relaxed right before I was
leaving for Vegas, I was even going to myself, ‘Wow, this is
something else.’

“I didn’t even realize the obstacles while we were in there. We
were just training and we were confident, but man, that’s some
heavy stuff this kid had to go through. But again, I think it goes
to show you and it defines his character and who he is. What makes
him really special is I honestly believe [Silva] was the best
pound-for-pound fighter there is. It’s not like [Weidman] just went
in there and had a big win; he beat the best guy ever, up until
this point.”

On whether they discussed what to do if Silva taunted
Weidman: “A hundred times. We had a couple of scenarios.
Once he started leaning and doing that stuff, we were going to
attack the body or if you felt that he was drawing you in too much,
we were just going to take a step back, walk away for two seconds
and then refocus and start trying to go forward, pressure again and
suffocate him. But that was talked about every week for sure. As
goofy as it was, I tried to do an Anderson Silva imitation and I
had some other guys try to imitate him. We were well prepared for
it, but you never know until you get in there and you actually have
Anderson Silva standing in front of you and he’s doing that.”

On planning to attack Silva’s body: “There was a
huge emphasis placed on the body, but [Weidman] didn’t really miss
his head all that much. I think that’s why you didn’t see it.”

On training to punch the body: “I had the belly
pad on for two months and [Weidman] was literally beating the crap
out of me. If it would have got to the point on the inside, he’s a
vicious body puncher. … I think if he would have missed with that
hook, you would have saw him probably go back to the body, but he
found success with it.”

On whether he thought Silva was faking or was really
hurt: “I thought that he’d hurt him. I knew that. You
can’t fake falling down like that, and then when he bounced his
head off the canvas, I was like, ‘Wow,’ because [Weidman’s] got
killer instinct. He’s a finisher, and there was no way that guy was
going to survive after that happened.”

On his reaction to the win: “I think my first
reaction was, Man, I love this kid. He talks the talk. He walks the
walk. He puts in the time brick by brick. He just is a hard worker.
He’s a throwback to the old days. He’s a grinder. … It was a crazy
time. I think I kind of blacked out, but it was just great. I think
it was just the culmination of everything you believe coming to
fruition. As a coach, I think there’s coaches out there that just
would give anything or they live their life for that moment.
Luckily, I’ve had two of them. For me, it was just a great
feeling.”